“I think for the first time, I truly believe we’re going to get a team. Finally,” Johnson said. “Everybody is on board. The city is on board. The business community is on board. The NFL is on board. Finally we have momentum. In the next couple years, at least in the next 24 months, I think one team will be coming. I don’t know what team that will be, but I believe in the next two years we’ll have a team.”

Johnson said he wants the Raiders, whose stadium lease in Oakland ends after this season, but would be open to any team coming to Los Angeles.

But not everyone is so keen on seeing football back in Los Angeles for the first time since 1994. A Los Angeles Register editorial in May warned against the dangers of taxpayers funding a new stadium.

“For those of us old enough to remember the ’90s, it sure was disappointing to lose two professional football teams, the Raiders and the Rams, back to back. With no shortage of thriving franchises in other pro sports, however, that might well have been a blessing in disguise.”

The Vikings and Bengals, the two latest teams who have threatened to move to L.A., have both been rewarded by new, taxpayer-funded stadiums.

When Los Angeles did have pro teams, the attendance was not off the charts. The Rams ranked in the bottom five of the league in attendance in their last three seasons. The Raiders averaged 51,194 in their final season, well below the Coliseum’s capacity of 92,516 at the time.

But attendance is a small part of the puzzle in judging a city’s ability to support an NFL team. The television numbers are key, followed closely by the overall health of the business community surrounding the city. Stadiums make far more money from sponsorships that include luxury box suits than nosebleed seats (even as overpriced as they have become).

Because of that, the NFL is never going to give up completely on L.A. It’s the second-largest media market in the country, and the NFL wants to reach even more of the 12.8 million people who live in the metropolitan area.

The league, despite its non-profit designation, is firmly focused on profits. The most popular league in the country no doubt feels it can muscle into the L.A. market to gain consumers/fans and begin profiting from the robust local economy.